Women’s World Cup Final: Germany 2-0 Brazil

By: Jan | September 30th, 2007

Germany’s Women celebrate That was a hard fought victory for the women’s national team.

The first fifteen to twenty minutes saw chances and possession shared evenly among the two teams. Germany pulled of a great attack with some quick passing, that sliced through Brazil’s defence and gave Sandra Smisek the chance to send a curling ball into the top left corner of the goal, but the ball went a bit wide. Kerstin Garefrekes also had a great chance after a quick counter attack but only hit the side of the net. After a promising start Brazil started to take control of possession and the game. Germany’s defence started to look a bit shaky and the German players looked nervous, as Brazil was winning most of the tackles as well. A great strike by Daniela only hit the post and when the match went into half time, Germany was lucky that Brazil failed to convert their dominance into goals. Norway and North Korea both had the same problems, though Brazil clearly looked the most dangerous of the three.

Going into half time I hoped, that Germany could get their act together again and find their way back into the game. And they did. They were much more aggressive, started to attack the Brazilian players earlier and a free flowing move was calmly finished off by Birgit Prinz, to give Germany the lead after 52 minutes. Germany then surrendered control of the match again and Brazil had a golden opportunity to get back into the game, when Cristiane was awarded a penalty, after she was brought down in the box by Bresonik. But Marta might have been a bit too nervous, as a rather weak penalty was saved by Nadine Angerer. Only minutes later Angerer pulled off another fantastic save to deny a free kick by Daniela. Brazil continued to push forward, but Germany’s defence now managed to cancel out their attacks much more effectively than in the first half. What I found a bit frustrating were all the high and long balls they often relied on for their defence, as they lost possession way too often this way. Brazil were running out of ideas a bit. Individual efforts saw their players doubled and tripled by the German defence. Germany relied on counter attacks and had a few good chances, but it wasn’t until the 86th minute that Renate Lingor’s header from a corner kick sealed the win and made it 2-0.

A cruel defeat for Brazil, who were the last team in the tournament to be punished by Germany for not taking their chances. They were the flair team and their great performance has at least given women’s football in Brazil a great boost, as the Brazilian FA now plans to introduce a cup competition for women teams. And looking at how young this Brazilian side still is, they will certainly become one of the dominant nations in women’s football in the next few years. Marta also won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball for best player and goalscorer of the tournament.

This is Germany’s second World Cup win and they set all sorts of crazy records with this one: They were the first senior team (men and women) to win a tournament without conceding a single goal. Nadine Angerer also broke Walter Zenga’s former World Cup record of 518 minutes without conceding a goal. She’s now at 540 minutes and could actually add some extra minutes to it in four years time. The 11-0 thrashing of Argentina was the highest victory in Women’s World Cup history. Birgit Prinz became the all time leading goalscorer of the Women’s World Cup. Germany became the first nation to successfully defend a Women’s World Cup title.

Bruno over at the Brazil Offside has shared his view of the final as well.